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GOD'S HAND AT SANTIAGO 

A SERMON PREACHED ON BOARD 
U. S. BATTLE-SHIP "IOWA" IN GUAN- 
TANAMO BAY, CUBA, JULY 10,1898, 
THE SUNDAY FOLLOWING THE NA- 
VAL BATTLE OF SANTIAGO A & # 







PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CREW 
OF THE BATTLE-SHIP "IOWA" 



A SERMON 



PREACHED ON BOARD U. S. BATTLE-SHIP "IOWA," 

IN GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA, JULY 10, 1898, 

THE SUNDAY FOLLOWING THE NAVAL 

BATTLE OF SANTIAGO 



BY 

ROSWELL RANDALL HOES 



CHAPLAIN, U. S. N. 




NEW YORK 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 

1898 



Copyright, 1898, by 
Roswell Randall Hoes 






6od's Rand at Santiago, 

Sermon Preached by Chaplain Roswell Randall Hoes, U. S. N.. on 

Board the U. S. Battle-ship "IOWA," in Guantanamo Bay, 

Cuba, July 10, 1898, the Sunday following the 

Naval Battle of Santiago. 




Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song ; for He hath done mar- 
vellous things : His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten 
Him the victory. ' ' — Psalm 98 : 1 . 

HE second article for the " Govern- 
ment of the United States Navy" 
is as follows : "The commanders 
of vessels and naval stations to which Chap- 
lains are attached shall cause divine service 
to be performed on Sunday, whenever the 
weather and other circumstances allow it to 
be done ; and it is earnestly recommended 
to all officers, seamen, and others in the 
naval service diligently to attend at every 
performance of the worship of Almighty 
God." 



Last Sunday, the 3d of July, no divine 
service was held on this battle-ship. The 
weather was favorable, but "other circum- 
stances " forbade. Our usual hour for wor- 
shiping God found us engaged in one of the 
most remarkable and effective naval engage- 
ments recorded in the annals of our coun- 
try. The voice of prayer and the singing of 
praise gave place to the roar of our deadly 
guns and the various other activities attend- 
ing a bloody conflict. However long we 
may live, we shall never forget the events of 
that day ! The sudden call to general quar- 
ters ; the cries passing with lightning rapid- 
ity from mouth to mouth that the Spanish 
ships were leaving the harbor ; the orderly 
rallying of officers and men at their respec- 
tive stations ; the rattle of the chains hoist- 
ing our ammunition ; the roar of our guns 
from the turrets and secondary batteries ; 
the whistling of the enemy's shot flying over 
our decks ; the crashing of our shells through 
and upon the ships of our foe ; the sinking 
of the Spanish torpedo-boats, the beaching 
and burning of their war vessels ; the low- 
ering of their flags in token of surrender ; 
the rescue by our men of the Vi^cayas offi- 
6 



cers and crew ; their arrival on this ship, 
many of them naked and the blood stream- 
ing from their ghastly wounds and gory 
stumps ; the surrender of his sword by 
Captain Eulate of the Vi\caya to Captain 
Evans and his declining to receive it — all 
these and many other thrilling incidents 
have stamped a picture upon our minds 
which memory will ever retain. 

But, comrades, there is something else 
which, as officers and men in the naval ser- 
vice of a Christian land, we should never 
forget, and that is that it was the "right 
hand" and the "holy arm" of Almighty 
God that gave us this marvellous victory. 
The whole history of the world, with all of 
its vicissitudes, whether in war or in peace, 
is but the unfolding of God's plans for the 
government of the universe. Events do not 
come to pass through blind chance or acci- 
dent. There is an intelligent purpose that 
marks all the events of history, and guides 
the destinies of the human race. "Man 
proposes, but God disposes," and "He 
doeth according to His will in the army of 
Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the 
earth, and none can stay His hand." It 
7 



may not always be possible for us to com- 
prehend why certain events or circles of 
events transpire, but if we believe in the 
existence of God, as all sane men must, it 
is not difficult to understand that Divine 
intelligence and will underly Divine govern- 
ment. And so it is that the years and dec- 
ades and centuries roll on, giving continu- 
ous expression to God's designs for the 
welfare of the human race. And while all 
this is true, it is also true that in the accom- 
plishment of His wise purposes, God em- 
ploys human instrumentalities. We are 
often but the means used for the accom- 
plishment of Divine ends. The Almighty 
can work without us, but in the exercise of 
His superior wisdom He frequently prefers 
to work through us. And this applies not 
only to individuals : it is equally true of the 
nations of the earth, which, through His 
directive power, accomplish His sovereign 
will. They may be guided by Him to re- 
ward the right and punish the wrong — to 
carry to others the blessings of peace, or to 
wield against them the engines of war. 

In the light of these facts, it is not diffi- 
cult to trace God's hand in the war in which 
8 



we are now engaged. We may not under- 
stand all of His purposes in allowing such a 
conflict as this to be waged between Chris- 
tian nations in these closing years of the 
nineteenth century, but it would seem that 
He has permitted us to recognize some of 
those purposes. For one, I firmly believe 
that God intended the great Republic of 
the West to be His instrument to punish 
the Spanish nation for the crimes committed 
in her name on the soil of the Western 
world. Spain once practically owned and 
controlled most of this continent and its ad- 
jacent islands. Through governmental mis- 
management and official oppression and 
cruelty, extending through more than four 
centuries, she has steadily been losing her 
grasp. For prudential and other reasons 
she yielded Florida and her vast possessions 
west of the Mississippi River, and through 
the revolt of her subjects she lost her sover- 
eignty in South America and Mexico. No- 
thing now remains to her in this part of the 
world but the islands of Cuba and Porto 
Rico, and it is my belief that the fiat of the 
American people will be obeyed that the 
Spanish flag shall no longer be permitted to 

9 



wave over a single foot of American soil. 
This is no war of aggression nor for the 
acquisition of territory. It is a conflict con- 
ceived and prosecuted in behalf of suffering 
humanity, and a just and self-respecting re- 
buke to a nation whose hostile attitude made 
possible the treacherous destruction of the 
Maine. The American people declined 
to tolerate another Armenia within less than 
a hundred miles of our own shores. Human 
butchery, enforced starvation, and, in many 
instances, agonizing physical torture — these 
are things against which every instinct of 
humanity in our country cried aloud in vio- 
lent protest. Our countrymen could not 
be true to themselves by turning a deaf ear 
to cries that reached us from the very por- 
tals of the grave. Our honored Chief 
Magistrate employed all the available means 
that diplomacy offered to accomplish the 
will of our people through peaceful chan- 
nels. No President was ever more faithful 
to his trust than was ours during those try- 
ing days. No statesman ever struggled for 
honorable peace more valiantly than he. 
He realized the awful responsibilities and 
terrible sufferings which would attend an 

IO 



appeal to arms, and, without shrinking or 
hesitation, he adopted every means consis- 
tent with our national honor to avert it. 
Our demands upon Spain were, as we be- 
lieve, just in the sight of God, and such as 
commended themselves to the moral senti- 
ment of all unprejudiced minds of whatever 
name or nationality. But Spain would not 
yield, and we could not. There was noth- 
ing left to do, and we were plunged into the 
stern realities of war. The Navy was ready 
for the conflict. Our guns were prepared 
to bellow, and our gunners were impatient 
for the fray. Dewey soon sent us his com- 
pliments from Manila, and now Sampson 
has responded. 

With all reverence we conscientiously 
believe that the voice of our guns was the 
voice of God, and that the awful message 
uttered was in condemnation of Spanish op- 
pression and cruelty, and a punishment for 
crimes that have left many indelible stains 
on the pages of history. Comrades, the 
Lord of Hosts hath done it ! He directed 
the counsels of our well-loved Admiral, He 
spoke through the commands of our gallant 
Captain from the conning-tower, and He 



guided the hands that manned our guns. 
"The Lord hath appeared for us: the 
Lord hath covered our heads, and made us 
to stand in the day of battle. The Lord 
hath appeared for us ; the Lord hath over- 
thrown our enemies, and dashed in pieces 
those that rose up against us. Therefore 
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us : but 
unto thy Name be given the glory." "Oh, 
sing unto the Lord a new song ; for He 
hath done marvellous things : His right 
hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him 
the victory." 

But, comrades, amid our rejoicings for 
victory and our ascriptions of praise to Al- 
mighty God for giving it to us, we should 
not fail to render Him our profound grati- 
tude for the preservation of our lives and 
our escape from all physical injury. The 
Spanish ships, we were told by our prison- 
ers, were ordered to concentrate their fire 
upon the Iowa, and the escape of every 
one of our officers and men from either 
death or injury seems, to human eyes, 
nothing less than miraculous. It has been 
estimated that the enemy's loss in killed and 
wounded could not have been less than six 

12 



hundred, while in our whole squadron poor 
Ellis of the Brooklyn was the only man 
killed, and only two were wounded. This 
disparity of loss stands unique in the naval 
battles of the world. Even when we take 
into full account, on the one hand, the ter- 
rible rapidity of our fire and our unerring 
marksmanship, which early in the action 
drove the Spaniards from their guns, and 
the evident lack of discipline and efficiency 
on the Spanish ships and their wretched 
marksmanship on the other, we are still un- 
able to explain, from any human point of 
view, the fact that not a single man on our 
ship was either killed or wounded. It cer- 
tainly was not because we were unhit, for 
the enemy's shell struck us nine times, and 
their fragments flew in every direction. Nor 
was it because of our distance from the 
enemy, for the Iowa approached within 
very short range of the Spanish ships. We 
can, therefore, only believe that, in spite of 
our sins and unworthiness, the protecting 
arm of the Almighty was stretched forth to 
shield us from harm. 

If this be not reason for gratitude, then I 
ask, my comrades, where can we find one ? 
13 



It is easy enough, in our carelessness and 
indifference, to forget these things — easy 
to attribute our deliverance to human causes 
— easy to magnify the power of earthly 
counsels ; but the fact still remains as the 
statement of Scripture and confirmed by the 
voice of history, that " in Him we live and 
move and have our being," and that " our 
help is in the name of the Lord who made 
heaven and earth." If we would be con- 
sistent Christians and worthy men — loyal 
to our God and true to the better instincts 
of our nature, we cannot fail to recognize 
these truths and to act upon them. Grati- 
tude to God is but the least of virtues — 
nay, it is no virtue at all. It is only the 
proper recognition of Divine blessings, and 
is therefore merely the rendering of a sim- 
ple act of justice to the Almighty. He who 
is lacking in gratitude is destitute of one of 
the most essential elements of true man- 
hood, and has no claim whatever upon the 
favor of God. 

Let not this, comrades, be our attitude 

towards Him who holds us in the hollow of 

His hands, but let us praise Him for His 

goodness and mercies through all our lives, 

14 



and especially during the memorable Battle 
of Santiago. Let us seek his face and favor, 
and render Him a humble tribute of thanks- 
giving. To do this as a mere matter of 
form is nothing less than mockery. Only 
sincerity is acceptable to Him. ''The sac- 
rifices of God are a broken spirit ; a broken 
and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not 
despise." The best evidence we can give 
Him of our gratitude is, first, by confessing 
our sins, and then by forsaking them. It is 
by doing the things that He desires and 
leaving undone those that He hates. It is 
by bringing ourselves, by His help, each 
day of our lives, nearer the standard of true 
Christian manhood, or, in the words of 
Paul, " till we all come in the unity of the 
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ. " 

There is one incident attending the his- 
toric events of last Sunday which I cannot 
forbear mentioning. I refer to the gener- 
ous and magnanimous treatment which was 
extended by both the officers and crew of 
this ship to our Spanish prisoners from the 
hour they stepped upon our decks until they 



left us on the afternoon of the following 
day. A large portion of them, as you 
know, were rescued from drowning by the 
boats sent from this ship, and you are well 
aware of the condition in which they reached 
us. Many of them were entirely naked, 
many others wore but a single garment, and 
but very few were completely dressed. Nor 
can any of us ever forget the ghastly man- 
ner in which a considerable number of them 
were wounded. Their bloody stumps and 
shattered limbs presented a spectacle such 
as probably none of us, save our Command- 
ing Officer, had ever witnessed. You lifted 
them as gently as though they were your 
brothers instead of your enemies, and car- 
ried them to the sick-bay. There they re- 
ceived the most careful and skillful surgical 
attention at the hands of our doctors and 
were watched over and waited upon as ten- 
derly as though they were attached to our 
own ship. The men composing the Span- 
ish crews were so completely clothed from 
our new Government stores that when they 
left us they were actually better clad than 
our own men. You gave them your pipes 
and tobacco, and performed for them so 

16 



many other generous acts that their confi- 
dence of safety was restored, and they were 
convinced that their expectations of imme- 
diate execution were not to be realized. In 
like manner, their commissioned officers 
were treated with the consideration which 
we would extend to our personal guests. 
Admiral Cervera and his flag-lieutenant 
(who was his son), as well as Captain Eulate 
of the Vifcaya, were not only entertained 
by Captain Evans in his cabin, but they 
were even partially clad in his garments ! 
•We, too, of the Ward-Room did all in our 
power for the other officers, and treated 
them in every instance as though they were 
our intimate friends instead of our enemies 
and prisoners. We clothed those whose 
necessities required it in our own garments, 
we vacated our rooms in order that they 
might sleep in our beds, and we did every- 
thing else we could to contribute to their 
personal comfort. Now we are simply 
talking among ourselves here this morning, 
and not to the outer world, and in the spirit 
of truth instead of boastfulness, and I think 
I am justified in stating that no prisoners in 
the annals of military or naval history were 
17 



ever before treated as we treated ours. 
You fought with magnificent desperation ; 
you inflicted upon the enemy every possible 
injury that our engines of war could exe- 
cute ; but from the very moment that the 
Spanish ships hauled down their flags, every 
thing that human kindness and skill could 
devise for the saving of life, for the relief 
of suffering and for the personal comfort 
and welfare of our foes was done, and 
gladly and cheerfully done, by the officers 
and men of this ship. Their very helpless- 
ness appealed to you, and the events of the 
day proved that your magnanimity and gen- 
erosity were only equalled by your courage 
and heroism. 

And now permit me to say, in conclusion, 
that we have every reason to congratulate 
ourselves to-day that we are officers and 
men in the United States Navy. A par- 
donable pride seizes us as we read the 
words addressed to Admiral Sampson by 
the Chief Magistrate of our country. " You 
have," he says, " the gratitude and con- 
gratulations of the whole American people. 
Convey to the noble officers and crews 
through whose valor new honors have been 

18 



added to the American Navy the grateful 
thanks and appreciation of the Nation/' 
And the head of our Department at Wash- 
ington, also addressing our Admiral, says : 
" The Secretary of the Navy sends you and 
every officer and man of your fleet, remem- 
bering equally your dead comrade, grateful 
acknowledgment of your heroism and skill. 
All honor to the brave ! You have main- 
tained the glory of the American Navy." 

Now, if we deserve words like these, a 
great responsibility is placed upon us. If 
much has been given us, much will also be 
required. The victory at Santiago calls 
every officer and man of this ship to the bet- 
ter performance of every duty that may be 
placed upon us. It also invites us to the 
exercise of a still higher patriotism and the 
continued devotion of ourselves to the ser- 
vice of our beloved country. Thanks to 
your valor, we stand to-day in the face of 
other lands as we never stood before. This 
war may possibly lead to complications of 
which we now but little dream. But what- 
ever may come to pass, we may be sure 
that our voice among the nations will be 
respected as it never has been before. Our 
19 



country, with the help of God, will never 
falter in defense of the right. In the ebb 
and flow of public sentiment, truth will 
eventually prevail; and it is our privilege, 
comrades, to stand as a rock of defense for 
our beloved land, and to dedicate ourselves 
anew to the service of our God and our 
country. 




2o 



L. C. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 703 493 1 



